Rough start, Roadrunners

The UTSA Football Team held its home opener this past Saturday, Sept. 12th, at the Alamodome. The team came out strong and fought hard, but they were handed their second loss in a row to start the season — falling to Kansas State Wildcats 30-3. With the program now entering it’s fifth season, expectations swelled and the team hoped for a much better outcome.

Head Coach Larry Coker, having over 40 years of coaching experience under his belt, pinpointed exactly what led to the loss, saying, “We can’t beat ourselves. We had some drops, had way too many penalties.” He continued by saying, “You have penalties like that, you’re not going to win. And then we missed some blocks.”

UTSA started out valiantly on their first drive. Led by Jarveon Williams — who paced UTSA with 31 yards rushing — and the run game, the Roadrunners marched down the field to begin the game. UTSA scored first, kicking a field goal, but did not score again for the remainder of the contest.

Kansas State’s offense struggled just the same in the first quarter. The game was 3-0 at the end of the first. Finally, Kansas State began the second quarter with a strong drive to move down the field and score on a one-yard run. Following the touchdown, Kansas State scored another 23 points throughout the match-up, ending the game with 30 unanswered points.

UTSA threatened to score again late in the first half. A connection between quarterback Blake Bogenschutz and tight end David Morgan II worked UTSA down to inside the Kansas State five-yard line. UTSA attempted a controversial fourth down conversion, aiming to get in the endzone rather than opting for a field goal. The pass was swatted down and UTSA did not enter the red zone again.

Blake Bogenschutz, who passed for 132 yards and completed 20 of his 33 attempts, spoke about the offense’s lack of execution and consistency after the game: “It’s the lack of execution. There was execution here and there, but we weren’t putting that all together to form one good drive,” said Bogenschutz.

The third quarter featured two field goals from Kansas State and a plethora of penalties from both sides.

Senior and defensive leader Mauricio Sanchez led UTSA’s defense with 5 solo tackles. UTSA’s defense held Kansas State to 13 points going into the third quarter. The Wildcats went on to more than double their score in the fourth quarter. Sanchez felt many little mistakes piled up and allowed Kansas State to break the game open.

“Second half, they just went big-ball on us and we gave up a couple penalties, pass interference, and then a couple big-time catches,” admitted Sanchez. “They got in the red zone and that’s where they scored most of their points,” he finished.

Kansas State racked up points behind a strong performance from their quarterback, Joe Huebner. In what was his first ever start at the quarterback position — high school or college — the former wide receiver completed 12-of-23 for 243 yards passing.

UTSA will not have much time to analyze what went wrong as they make a trip to Stillwater, OK, to face the top-25 ranked Oklahoma State this Saturday, Oct. 12. The team must rectify the offense and find a way to put points on the board in order to compete.

The team is mentally preparing for such a test against a great team in Oklahoma State. UTSA’s starting quarterback and leader, Blake Bogenschutz, has the right mindset heading into the tough match-up. Bogenschutz will practice this week with one thing on his mind, “Win. We need to win.”